World News - Home loan demand falls even though mortgage rates were lower

Mortgage applications fell for the first time in three weeks despite a dip in mortgage rates to their lowest level since January, an industry trade group said Wednesday.The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity, which includes both refinancing and purchasing loans, for the week ended Nov. 17 fell 3.7%.Borrowing costs on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, excluding fees, averaged 6.13%, down 0.02 percentage point from the previous week, and well below a four-year high 6.86% in June. Interest rates were also below year-ago levels of 6.26%.The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was at its lowest level since the week ended Jan. 20, when it reached 6.04%.... http://www.usatoday.com

The Iraqi death toll hit a record high in October, with more than 3,700 people losing their lives in the ongoing violence, according to a UN report. The majority of the 3,709 people who died were killed in sectarian attacks - nearly 200 more than in the previous record month of July. The brunt of the violence was borne in Baghdad, while the report also noted that women were increasingly victims. The UN bases its figures on data collected by the Iraqi Health Ministry. "The civilian population of Iraq continues to be victims of terrorist acts, roadside bombs, drive-by shootings, cross fire between rival gangs, or between police and insurgents, kidnappings, military operations, crime and police abuse," the report said. It also made reference to the growing numbers of unidentified bodies which turn up in various areas around the capital. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6172660.stm

A senior North Korean official has said the North does not intend to abandon its nuclear programme when it returns to talks on the subject, reports say. Deputy foreign minister Kang Sok-ju said the North had not tested a nuclear weapon last month to then get rid of them, according to Japanese media. North Korea recently agreed to return to stalled multi-national talks, which could resume next month. Japan had said Pyongyang must renounce its nuclear plans before talks restart. "Why would we abandon nuclear weapons?" Mr Kang was quoted by Japan's NHK television as saying. "Are you saying we conducted a nuclear test in order to abandon them?" When asked if North Korea planned to demand the US lift financial sanctions imposed a year ago, Mr Kang replied: "Of course". Mr Kang's comments were made to reporters as he passed through Beijing airport on his way home after a private trip to Russia. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6172038.stm

Researchers have been scouring rivers in Europe and the US for traces of cocaine consumption. The result: Cocaine use is probably much greater than previously assumed -- and New Yorkers are the biggest coke-heads of all. Last year, a study instigated by SPIEGEL ONLINE made big headlines: Experts had foraged Germany's rivers for a substance produced by the human body during cocaine consumption, and the results were bountiful. The extrapolated numbers revealed, among other things, that residents around the river Rhine's drainage basin near Düsseldorf consume roughly 11 tons of cocaine each year. The street value: around €1.64 billion.Now the experts at Nuremberg's Institute for Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Research (IBMP) have expanded their method to other EU countries and the US. The results are similar to those of 2005: Previous official estimates for cocaine use, which rely heavily on police statistics, are apparently way too low....http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,450078,00.html

China has acknowledged the practice of "transplant tourism," in which the organs of executed prisoners are sold to foreigners, and says it wants to regulate the sale of kidneys, livers and other body parts. "Most of the organs from cadavers are from executed prisoners," Vice Health Minister Huang Jiefu said at a summit for transplant doctors in Guangzhou this week, state newspapers reported. The practice had been repeatedly denied by the government. A ministry spokesman also said that "wealthier people, including foreign patients" could jump waiting lists because they were willing to pay more. Under new rules, foreigners would only be allowed to come to China for transplants under regulations yet to be announced but that would conform to international standards, the summit was told. Priority would be given to an estimated 1 million Chinese on waiting lists. All doctors would have to agree to the rules, which also include a ban on "organ trading" -- ...http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20061116-111329-8939r.htm

The Pentagon is drafting its own new options for winning in Iraq, in part, to give President Bush counterproposals to fall back on in case the Iraq Study Group comes up with ideas he does not like, defense officials say. Meanwhile, study group co-chairman Lee H. Hamilton, a former Democratic representative from Indiana, told The Washington Times yesterday that he and co-chairman James A. Baker III, secretary of state in the first Bush administration, have nearly completed a first draft report. Mr. Hamilton said the two men hope to complete it this weekend, give it to the eight other Iraq Study Group members in time for a meeting next week to review it. The report contains Mr. Hamilton's and Mr. Baker's assessment of the Iraq situation and recommendations to Mr. Bush. The 10 members will then accept, reject or modify the ideas, and Mr. Hamilton cautioned that the panel has no deadline to produce a final report....http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20061122-121959-6535r.htm